Christina's Blog

Are you looking forward to the holidays?  I am!

This year at Copperlight Art we’re offering something new, and we’re raising funds for charity at the same time.  I hope you’ll join me for our 1st Annual Holiday Portrait Charity Event.  This portrait session provides you with beautiful holiday portraits of your children at a great price and provides much-needed funds to a local charity for children.

I’m offering two different holiday sets for you to choose from this year.  My “Winter Wonderland” features  a sparkling scene of white, silver and gold.  Imagine snow-covered branches glistening in tiny lights and crystals… a magical sight perfect for a winter portrait.  Formal clothing is beautiful with this set, and white, black, red, and hunter green clothing look best.  This set even looks good with casual clothes!

“Christmas Wishes” and “Dreaming of Santa” both feature a beautifully decorated Christmas tree with piles of presents just waiting to be opened.  Gather your little ones around the tree for an unforgettable holiday portrait that you will treasure for years to come.  Christmas PJs look great with this set, as well as clothing in the traditional colors of red and green.

I am thrilled that my “Dreaming of Santa” sessions will enjoy a surprise visit from Santa himself! Our Santa sessions are very limited and will be scheduled on a first-come, first-serve basis – you don’t want to miss this opportunity if you have little ones and this is a great alternative to the long lines at the mall.   My goal is to capture a beautiful moment including Santa in each of these sessions, even if I have to sneak him in the background while little ones are distracted – I want to give you a portrait you will cherish.  (Though I know those shots from your childhood of Santa holding a crying baby can bring back funny memories!)

Our Holiday Portrait Charity Event will take place on Saturday, November 21, and Sunday, November 22.  Please call to schedule your appointment soon!  This time of year, when everyone’s beginning to imagine the perfect gift, I think we’ve found it—capturing enduring family images and providing funds to help children in need.  Isn’t that what the spirit of the holidays is all about?

Due to a last-minute cancellation at the studio, I had time to squeeze in a little mini-session with 6 month old Dominick – boy, did I get lucky!  This sweet guy was just a bundle of happiness and I enjoyed every second of photographing him.  Since we weren’t in the studio, I created a cozy little set-up in between a dining room table and a large window.  It turned out to be a great spot, with plenty of sunshine for us to work with.  I think he would have been perfectly content to hang out with me (and my camera) and let me tickle his toes all day.

I tried getting him to lay on his tummy on a pillow, but every time I moved my hands back to the camera, he did this little fishy swim-kick that slid him right off the back.  Not only was it adorable, but he didn’t even seem to mind that I tried another 10 times before finally giving up on that pose!  I was totally on Cloud 9 when the session was over and couldn’t wait to get back and load up the images for a preview.  This is just a sneak-peek from what is sure to be a set of my favorite images – I’ll definitely be posting more of these in the coming weeks!  Enjoy!

I’ve been away for over a week, on vacation with my family at Myrtle Beach.  Laying on the beach, listening to the waves, basking in the sun – my favorite way to relax by far!  It’s so nice to get away from the daily grind, but I think most Moms would agree that family vacations can be full of a different type of stress though, if you’re not careful.  I decided to tempt fate by planning to shoot our family portrait out on the beach during this trip – and my goal was not just one great session, but two!

Now let me be clear that most portrait sessions are not really stressful – but there is something different (harder) about photographing your own family, especially when you are also trying to be in the image – I always end up looking like I just pushed a button, ran around the camera, plopped down in whatever position I could find, and smiled just as the shutter clicked – which is of course exactly what I *have* just done!  Even still, I was determined to make this work.

A few lessons learned:
1. Heavy Winds + Beach = Unhappy child with sand in his eyes.
2. Family portraits look better when no one is crying in them.
3. A beautiful family portrait can make the above lessons worth learning!

I am thankful to my patient and understanding family for being willing to endure the blown sand on Day 1, changing into their “portrait clothes” on 5 minutes notice on day 2, and being bribable with ice cream and chocolate on Day 3.  I am grateful for the beautiful portraits that emerged from the chaos and that no one has yet to accuse me of taking to many photographs of them!  I can’t wait to get these on my wall!  Here’s a preview of a few of my favorites so far… notice I’m not in any of these!